-During the Middle Ages, the principal support for a school system came from the

Church. As the monastic schools declined with the increasing urbanization of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, education came mainly under the control of the
growing cathedral schools and the chapel schools of princes. ere the academic
disciplines of the seven liberal arts were maintained in the !uadrivium "arithmetic,
geometry, music, astronomy# and the trivium "grammar, dialectic, rhetoric#. $ith the
founding and growth of universities in the fourteenth century, instruction in the more
advanced !uadrivial sub%ects was increasingly surrendered by the cathedral schools
to the institutions of higher learning. &hus the !uadrivial study of music as a
manifestation of mathematical proportion and speculative theory was maintained in
the universities until the middle of the si'teenth century, with the Ars novae musicae
"()(*# of +ean de Muris used as the principal treatise.
(
, "-elingham, -ruce Allan.
"Ch. (, Ch. .# &he -icinium in the /utheran /atin 0chools During the 1eformation
2eriod., 2hD diss., 3niversity of &oronto, (*4(, 5#
-67 (8 0ee 9eorg 0ch:nemann, 9eschichte der deutschen 0chulmusi; "(*.5#<
9erhard 2ietzsch, =ur 2flege der Musi; an den deutschen 3niversit>ten bis zur
Mitte des (?. +ahrhunderts, in8 Afmf @, @@@, A-A@@ "(*)?, (*)5, (*BC-.#<, "-elingham,
-ruce Allan. "Ch. (, Ch. .# &he -icinium in the /utheran /atin 0chools During the
1eformation 2eriod., 2hD diss., 3niversity of &oronto, (*4(, 5#
-7an Coo;e Carpenter, Music in the Medieval and 1enaissance 3niversities "(*D5#,
(CCff< Edward /ippman, &he 2lace of Music in the 0ystem of /iberal Arts, in8 AM1M
"(*??#, DBD< Ernest /ivingstone, &he 2lace of Music in 9erman Education from the
-eginning &hrough the (?th Century, in8 +1ME FA "(*?4#, .B)< Glaus $olfgang
7iemHller, Das sp>tmittelalterliche 0chulwesen und die Musi;,, &eil @@ in,
3ntersuchungen zu Music;pflege und Musi;unterricht an den deutschen
/ateinschulen vom ausgehenden Mittelalter bis um (?CC "(*?*#, D5(ff., "-elingham,
-ruce Allan. "Ch. (, Ch. .# &he -icinium in the /utheran /atin 0chools During the
1eformation 2eriod., 2hD diss., 3niversity of &oronto, (*4(, 5-*#
-Music was hardly lac;ing in the lower schools, however. @n the schools attached to
monasteries, cathedrals, parish churches and princely chapels, a more practical
course of studies developed as the Carolingian trivium,, and included computational
arithmetic, /atin grammar, and music.
.
&he immediate goal of these scholae
cantorum was to instruct the students in the language and music of the church so
that they could serve as singers and attendants in the daily liturgical life of the
Church8 $hether attached to a cathedral, a church, or a cloister, the medieval lower
school was concerned primarily with he cantus ecclesiaticus< the pupils were
essentially singing students,.
)
All the boys were instructed in plainchant, but especially in the larger churches and
chapels that could attract more gifted students, only the good singers and those who
were given bursaries sang polyphonic music in church.
B
0tudents who showed
e'ceptional ability were instructed in musical composition and progressed to become
professional musicians8 it is there, and not in the university, that all the composers
were trained,.
D
&he e'ample of 0i't Dietrich, the composer who later %oined the
/utherans in $ittenberg, will serve to illustrate this educational process. Dietrich was
a choir boy in Gonstanz from (DCB-5 while einrich @saac was associated with the
court chapel. Along with eight other boys, Dietrich sang the discant part, while the
other parts were performed by deputy teachers and singers "succentores#. e
returned from his university studies at 6reiburg in (D(4 as @nformator choralium,,
with the duty to teach the younger boys grammar and singing of plainchant and
polyphonic music, to which he himself contributed compositions.
?
0uch training in the
schools remained indispensable for the daily services in the Catholic churches and
was maintained in spite of the strong influences that were later felt from the /utheran
schools. &he 6reiburg schoolmaster in (DB? e'pressed his determination to provide
singers for his church8 7evertheless, the school must be maintained for the sa;e of
the choirboys,.
4
, "-elingham, -ruce Allan. "Ch. (, Ch. .# &he -icinium in the
/utheran /atin 0chools During the 1eformation 2eriod., 2hD diss., 3niversity of
&oronto, (*4(, *-(C#
-&he medieval splitting of musical pedagogy into a higher and lower branch
corresponded in a certain way to the division which had occurred earlier between a
Musicus,, the student who ;new music through a scientific-theoretical education
"IarsJ or IscientiaJ#, and a Cantor,, the singer who operated solely from practical
e'perience "IususJ#. A similar distinction developed between a ICantorJ and a I1ectorJ
within the schools. 1egional differences between these two positions e'isted, but in
general the I1ector scholaeJ "or schoolmaster# remained also I1ector choriJ in the
Catholic church. e was responsible for the music in the church services and
obtained his revenue from school fees and from singing duties. @f these duties
became too demanding and if he could afford it, the I1ectorJ employed an assistant
"or ICantorJ# to prepare the singing for the church.
5
, "-elingham, -ruce Allan. "Ch. (,
Ch. .# &he -icinium in the /utheran /atin 0chools During the 1eformation 2eriod.,
2hD diss., 3niversity of &oronto, (*4(, (C-((#
-&he principal study in all of the larger cathedral schools was singing and notation.
After a considerable time at this level, the student entered into the study of
counterpoint and, if he was considered capable, of composition. Knly the e'ceptional
students were given this advanced training. &he ma%ority of the cathedral-school
students remained at the level of studying plainchant and notation. 9uillaume de Aan
has stated that to my ;nowledge, no account preserves for us the programme of
studies at a medieval cathedral school,.
.)
-ut the theorist Adriaen 2etit Coclico
provided an account of what he purported to be the teaching methods of no less a
master than +os!uin des 2rez.
.B
&his description, e'tremely valuable for our study,
appears in CoclicoJs Compendium musices "(DD.#, fol. 6i%J8
@tem 2raeceptor meus @os!uinus de 2ratis nullam un!uam praelegit out scripsit Musicam, breui tamen
tLpore absolutes Musicos fecit, !uia suos discipulos non in longis M friuolis preceptionobus detinebat,
sed simul canendo praecepta per e'ercitium M practicam paucis uerbis docebat.
Cum autem uiderit suos utcun!< in canendo firmos, belle pronunclare, ornatL canere, M te'tum suo
loco applicare, docuit eos species perfectas M imperfectas, modum!< canendi contra punctum super
Choralem, cum his speciebus.
Nuos autem animaduerit acuti ingeni% esse M animi leti his tradidit paucis uerbis re!ulam componendi
trium uocum, postea !uatuor, !uin!<, se' Mc. appositis simper e'emplis, !uae illi imitarentur. 7on enim
omnes ad componendi rationem aptos iudicauit @os!uinus, eos tantum eam docendos statuit, !ui
singulari naturae impetus ad pulcherimam hanc artem ferrentur.
My teacher +os!uin des 2rez never gave a lecture on music or wrote a theoretical wor;, and yet he
was able in a short time to form complete musicians, because he did not ;eep bac; his pupils with
long and useless instructions, but taught them the rules in a few words, through practical application in
the course of singing.
And as soon as he saw that they ;new how to embellish melodies and how to fit the te't to the music,
then he taught them the perfect and imperfect intervals and the different methods of inventing OsingingP
counterpoints against plainsong.
@f he discovered, however, pupils with an ingenious mind and promising disposition, then he would
teach these in a few words the rules of three-part and later of our-, five-, si'-part, etc., writing, always
providing them with e'amples to imitate. +os!uin did not, however, consider all suited to learn
composition< he %udged that only those should be taught who were drawn to this delightful art by a
special natural impulse.
.D
$ith +os!uin appeared the 1enaissane ideal8 a composer-performer who also taught
to youngsters, but with simple instructions and with practical e'amples, always with a
view to practice. $hat is especially noteworthy is the procedure which Coclico said
that +os!uin used in training his pupils in polyphonic music. After dealing with various
aspects of monophonic singing, +os!uin apparently spent a good deal of time on
intervallic relationships and singing counterpoints against plainsong,8 in other words,
he had his pupils practice two-voiced compositions. &hat +os!uin considered two-
voiced singing to be a sufficient limit in the musical education for most of his pupils is
evident from CoclicoJs statement that only the more capable were taught the rules of
composing for three or more voices, and only after they had gained a solid training in
two-voiced music., "-elingham, -ruce Allan. "Ch. (, Ch. .# &he -icinium in the
/utheran /atin 0chools During the 1eformation 2eriod., 2hD diss., 3niversity of
&oronto, (*4(, (?-(5#
-&eaching Manuscripts
7an Coo;e Carpenter divides the large corpus of medieval treatises on music into
two categories, speculative and practical wor;s. 1ationalistic studies of music as a
mathematic-philosophical science,,
.4
designed for the university student of the
!uadrivium, constitute the speculative treatises. &hose wor;s dealing with musica
practica were concerned not primarily with music as a philosophical discipline but
with sounding music, vocal or instrumental,.
.5
&his distinction e'plains why most of
the treatises of the fourteenth century, such as those by Marchettus da 2adua
"whose /ucidarium in Arte Musicae 2lanae was intended to raise the unlearned
singer to the level of the philosophical musicus,#,
.*
2rosdocimus de -eldemandis,
and +ean de Muris have very brief or no musical e'amples.
)C
, "-elingham, -ruce
Allan. "Ch. (, Ch. .# &he -icinium in the /utheran /atin 0chools During the
1eformation 2eriod., 2hD diss., 3niversity of &oronto, (*4(, .C-.(#
-67 )C8 &he Ars novae of Muris in 9erbert, op. cit., .*., )C5, )(., has no musical
e'amples and was long used in the universities., "-elingham, -ruce Allan. "Ch. (,
Ch. .# &he -icinium in the /utheran /atin 0chools During the 1eformation 2eriod.,
2hD diss., 3niversity of &oronto, (*4(, .(#